EXBlicks: Speaking Gardens

Converse with nature at this month's EXBlicks, Speaking Gardens, on February 24, 8:30pm at Lichtblick Kino.

Presented by Exberliner and realeyz.tv, this month’s EXBlicks takes the notion of sustainable growing and eating from lofty ideal to practical, on-your-doorstop reality with mid-length documentary Speaking Gardens, a gentle panorama of Berlin urban gardening projects.

Anyone with even a passing interest in growing their own, whether in the likes of Tempelhof’s bountiful, fantastical sprawl or in a tiny grass verge, will find plenty to relish. Gardens range from the well-rooted (Moritzplatz’s Prinzessinnengarten) to the more recently budded (Himmelbeet).

The whole film blows away any notion of the lone and grouchy gardener, capturing both a deep sense of leaf-rustling, meditative peace and the spirit of community and dogged dedication of the people behind these patches, from the pacifist patience of the organisers behind the Allmende- Kontor (to give the Tempelhof gardens their proper title) to the gentle radicalism of the plant-and-dash Guerilla Gardeners.

Directors Teresa Beck and René Reichelt will be present after the screening, as will complimentary wine (naturally.)